{"id":5658,"date":"2025-11-06T11:59:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T10:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/?p=5658"},"modified":"2025-11-06T12:04:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T11:04:38","slug":"the-long-awaited-maruja-mallo-retrospective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/en\/2025\/11\/the-long-awaited-maruja-mallo-retrospective\/","title":{"rendered":"The long-awaited Maruja Mallo retrospective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ana Mar\u00eda G\u00f3mez Gonz\u00e1lez, known as Maruja Mallo, was a multifaceted artist from Galicia<\/strong> who lived a long life, being proof of this its varied and extensive production. <\/strong>Discover her universe thanks to the exhibition dedicated to the artist at the Reina Sof\u00eda Museum<\/strong> of Madrid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

She entered the artistic landscape of Madrid early, scenery of meaningful gatherings and meetings within the cultural field. The circles she used to frequent led her to strike up a friendship with people such as Concha M\u00e9ndez, Salvador Dal\u00ed, Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca<\/strong> \u2013among others\u2013 and to earn the admiration of leading figures like Jos\u00e9 Ortega y Gasset, Ram\u00f3n G\u00f3mez de la Serna<\/strong> or Joaqu\u00edn Torres Garc\u00eda<\/strong>, taking place a mutual influence in each case. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo: Sue\u00f1os noct\u00e1mbulos<\/em> (1922) by Salvador Dal\u00ed. In the lower left corner we can see both artists. El Pa\u00eds.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Since the late 20’s she started to exhibit her artwork in galleries and shows, contributing to creating a huge presence at the artistic overview at that time. She was very versatile, she experimented with different styles that allowed her to express her ideas. At first, she captures modernity<\/strong> and her avangarde taste in a first stage where we can find a fixation with sport<\/strong> \u2013a topic that was recurring in the new art (Arte Nuevo)\u2013, at the same time that she depicts popular scenes, because she considered both subjects to be non-exclusive. This symbiosis between traditional and avant-garde aspects<\/strong> won’t be an exception that characterized the artist, but a shared feature within her generation. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo: El mago<\/em> (The wizard) \/ Pim pam pum <\/em>(1926). Own work.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

During her career we observe, as it was mentioned, a very varied production<\/strong>, so trying to classify the artist in just one movement or style would be mistaken and against the dynamic nature of Mallo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She developed darker paintings <\/strong>on her series Cloacas y Campanarios (sewers and bell towers), <\/em>she was interested in geometry<\/strong> and mathematics<\/strong> in Arquitecturas <\/em>(architectures), she reflected her social concerns <\/strong>in Religi\u00f3n del Trabajo<\/em> (works’s religion) and even showed an eagerness to classification<\/strong> in a scientific manner, while showing interest in the dynamism of life and in universalism, inspired by her stay in South America in Naturalezas Vivas <\/em>(living nature), Retratos Bidimensionales<\/em> (two-dimensional portraits) and in M\u00e1scaras<\/em> (masks) \u2013a topic that she finally will adapt to the cosmic scene in Moradores del Vac\u00edo<\/em> (inhabitants of void) and in Viajeros del \u00c9ter<\/em> (ether travellers)\u2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: M\u00e1scaras <\/em>(masks) series. Own work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photo: Retratos Bidimensionales<\/em> (two-dimensional portraits) gallery at Centro Bot\u00edn in Santander. Own work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n
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Photo: Naturaleza Viva<\/em> (living nature), 1943. Own work.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Moreover, she was not just an artists<\/strong>. She also was a lecturer, teacher, art theorist and a missionary within the Misiones Pedag\u00f3gicas (pedagogical missions), nonetheless these sides of her may be more unknown because their lesser impact on historiography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the exile on the occasion of the Civil War, as it happened to the vast majority of the exiled artists, her figure fades into oblivion<\/strong>. However, there were attempts of reclaiming the artist. <\/strong>The first one who tried was herself, she promoted her reintegration in the artistic overview and had an of note artistic awareness<\/strong>, leaving documentary proof of her activity. And, on the other hand, its stands out the important work of her relatives, artists, critics, collectors, journalists and researchers such as Emilio G\u00f3mez Gonz\u00e1lez, Juan Manuel and Antonio Bonet, L\u00eda Elena Elizalde o Estrella de Diego, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This 2025, after some attempts of making a big retrospective of the artist in order to contemplate her work in a comprehensive way, the Reina Sof\u00eda Museum made her wish expressed to the painter Juan Mart\u00ednez de la Colina in 1994 come true: having a reasoned catalogue<\/strong> \u2013presented in 2021 featuring the Azcona Foundation\u2013 and a huge retrospective<\/strong> in this museum.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo: visitors at the M\u00e1scara y Comp\u00e1s<\/em> temporary exhibition with Ana Bel\u00e9n, expert in Maruja Mallo. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

If you want to learn more about the artist guided by an expert, in Voil\u00e0rt<\/strong> we offer you a visit through the M\u00e1scara y Comp\u00e1s exhibition every wednesday with Ana Bel\u00e9n Feijoo<\/strong>, an art historian that also did her thesis on Maruja Mallo. \u00a1You can not miss it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ana Mar\u00eda G\u00f3mez Gonz\u00e1lez, known as Maruja Mallo, was a multifaceted artist from Galicia who lived a long life, being proof of this its varied and extensive production. Discover her universe thanks to the exhibition dedicated to the artist at the Reina Sof\u00eda Museum of Madrid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition","category-madrid-en"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5658"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5710,"href":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5658\/revisions\/5710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wearevoilart.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}